Should loot boxes be banned?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right: On September 12, 2020, ABC News produced a segment explaining what loot boxes are and why some authorities believe they are like gambling and should be regulated.What they said...
'Social media and video games prey on user addiction, siphoning our kids' attention from the real world and extracting profits from fostering compulsive habits'
Republican Senator for Missouri, Josh Hawley
'If I want to buy [loot boxes], we should have the right to make that transaction, do-gooder politicians be damned'
Forbes senior contributor, Erik Kain
The issue at a glance
On October 29, 2020, United States video games publisher, Electronic Arts, was fined $5.86 million by the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) for using loot boxes in FIFA football-based games.
In September 2020, the British House of Lords called for loot boxes to be regulated in the same way that gambling is.
Seven months before, in February 2020, the Australian Federal Parliament received a t report from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, titled 'Protecting the age of innocence'.
The report recommended the introduction of loot box regulation, with mandatory age checks for purchasing. The committee also suggested that warnings should be added to video games that include any form of microtransaction, including loot boxes, skins, and other cosmetic items.
The debate seems to centre around whether loot boxes should be regulated or banned. In 2018, Belgium ruled that loot boxes acquired through some form of monetary transaction are gambling and should be banned in all videogames. Large fines and prison terms of up to five years can apply to those who break these laws.